Indicator 5: Living arrangements

Partly, for the data we selected.

There are different types of living arrangements, such as whether someone lives:

• independently in the community;
• in the community with home support; or
• in residential care.

An older person mignt be living in a one-person household or with a range of other people, such as children, a partner, siblings, or unrelated others.

At each census, data is collected on these variables as well as on the different types of accommodation that people live in, such as hotels, motels, hospitals, retirement homes, prisons, hostels, boarding houses, defence barracks, flats, units, townhouses, apartments, houses, or motor camps.

The 2006 census information is reported at www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/older_people/new-zealands-65-plus-population.aspx.

You can read summary data for men and women aged 65+ on page 24 of Demographic Aspects of New Zealand’s Ageing Population (March 2006).^[1]

Census data can be combined with information from other sources, as needed. For example, Statistics New Zealand used information about publicly funded home-based support services for 2008/09 and census data to show the estimated proportion of older people who live at home with support, and to estimate the proportion of older people living in residential care.

Figure 1 shows that 5% of people aged 65+ lived in residential care and the rest lived in the community, with or without publicly funded home support. Figure 2 shows the ethnic distribution of the population by living arrangement.